but not yet folded the laundry and so it's sitting in baskets downstairs,

my husband, who generally gets up before I do,

always brings up clothes he knows I'll need that day

so that I don't have to go downstairs and get them.

I don't ask for this. He simply does it.

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Our kids read before bed.

They both listen to audio books as well.

We've walked upstairs and heard Snape's voice

coming from both bedrooms

at the same time (but different books).

-------------------------

Thing 1 reads a different book WHILE the Harry Potter audio is on.

I have no idea how she can do that.

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Scout asks us for demands a treat
every time she goes outside to go potty.
She does the same thing every time we turn on the TV.
She is endearingly neurotic.

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Mark has a really sweet older German patient who,
every time she comes into the clinic for an appointment,
absolutely insists on giving him extra cash for "the kiddies,"
whom she has not ever met.
Super sweet!

-----------------------

This past Christmas,
I took Thing 2 shopping to help pick out stocking stuffers for his sister.
He looked around and really thought about his gift giving.
I teared up when he held out his hands to me showing me the items he selected
and saying, "I think Kate will like these."
There was such evident thought behind each choice,
and it was abundantly clear how well he knows and loves his sister.

-----------------------

Poor Mark.It's like living with an 80 year old, the way I crank space heaters by my feet in the winter!

-----------------------

This past month, Thing 2, after playfully kicking Mark in the leg and, er, well, missing,said, "Well, now I know I can take down a big
person!"

----------------------

I was reading some comments on my daughter's blog the other day
and saw her tell her friend that she thinks of me like a sister.That brought a smile to my face.

-------------------- Sweets in our house almost always go bad, stale, or moldy.We eat some (brownies, cobblers, etc.) the first night,and then no one is interested again.People are often amazed to hear this, but it's true. ---------------------Sometimes watching things on our Tivo feels like doing homework.---------------------Thing 1 is clumsy and delights in owning that fact.She loves to think of herself as being like Sookie from Gilmore Girls.As a little kid, she used to drop things and declare,"I've got butter hands!"That's like butter fingers on speed.--------------------Thing 1 got her braces off a few days ago.We celebrated with bubble gumand had wings for dinner!She has missed eating meat off the bone.I had braces as a kid, and to this day cut meat off the bone with fork and knife.-------------------

We generally all do house chores together around here.
We recently, at the kids' request
and in the pursuit of greater efficiency and organization,
wrote down chores for them to do on a chart.
In addition to things like dishes and laundry
and vacuuming and things like that,
each kid is in charge one lunch and one dinner every week.
We are LOVING it.
This past week, Thing 2 made delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and
tomato-basil soup for lunch, and very good chilli for dinner.
Thing 1 made quesadillas for lunch
and amazing slow-cooked French dip sandwiches for dinner,
along with a beautiful spinach salad filled with strawberries,
blueberries, and mandarin oranges.
We are LOVING this!

---------------------

I love the smile on Thing 1's face
when her American Girl magazine comes in the mail.
Little things make both kids very happy.

---------------------

Scout likes to sleep in a basket of clean laundry.
When she sees it, she acts like it's just for her.

The German lady. There is no easier way to get me to like someone--ust be nice to my kids. And I have to admit that even goes for boys showing an interest in my teenage daughters. I really don't get the whole "pull out my rifle" mentality. If they are smart enough to like my daughters, then there's something to them. Anyway, that German lady sounds like a great person.

The one good thing about winter is we have a wood stove in our family room. So we all hang out in there until bedtime. I don't trust space heaters.

I almost always fold the laundry but this past week the kids laundry sat on the couch, then I moved it to our bed so I would fold it, then that night moved it back to the couch so we could go to bed. I moved it twice more before I actually buckled down and folded it today. There was only one outfit left per kid, which means I have to do another load tomorrow. Oy.

I hate Walmart. HATE. I wish I had another choice.

You have very good kids.

I never had braces so I always wonder what it's like to not be able to eat food. Weird.

You should see MY smile when the American Girl doll catalog comes. I'm like a little girl again. Those things are amazing. But I'd never trust one in my house. Maybe when Zoe's 15...

We love hanging out at your place because of ALL THESE THINGS. Seriously, it's like someone could film a sitcom about a B&B there without any scripting.

The chore thing works pretty well around here though we have to remind them to check their list a lot.

Harry Potter - our boys are like this with anything Looney Tunes (Tiny, Baby, Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain). They can quote nearly every episode front to back while engaged in something completely different.

Insightful Quote

From The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield--there's a great description of a minor character (the doctor's wife) in the book. It goes like this (page 104):

"The doctor's wife wasn't a bad woman. She was sufficiently convinced of her own importance to believe that God actually did watch everything she did and listen to everything she said, and she was too taken up with rooting out the pride she was prone to feeling in her own holiness to notice any other failings she might have had. She was a do-gooder, which means that all the ill she did, she did without realizing it."